Jordan’s Mini Reviews- There Will Be Blood, Happy Death Day, Moon, Logan Lucky, American Assassin

I’m trying something new this week in order to review several movies I watched over the last couple weeks. On the previous iteration of this site before it was changed and expanded, I occasionally did classic movie reviews and DVD reviews. This is a play on that. These reviews will be short and concise to give me a chance to share my thoughts on movies I’ve watched recently. Anyway lets get to the reviews and give it a shot.

There Will Be Blood

I had only seen pieces of this movie before and Doug, on of the other writers here, has been telling me I have to watch it all the way through. I’m glad I finally did. Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano give probably the best performances of their respective careers, which is saying something. The movie somehow makes a movie about oil incredibly interesting. It is fascinating to watch the rise and fall of such an intelligent tycoon who just can’t seem to keep it together. It is a little long and very dark. There is pretty much no levity at all to the point that it makes the Zac Snyder DCEU look like comedy movies. Not necessarily a bad thing, but you should know it going in. 4.5/5

Happy Death Day

The Groundhog Day of horror movies uses a good concept to its advantage. It is an enjoyable movie with a short runtime that flies by. It isn’t overly scary which could be a positive or negative depending on what you are looking for. The movie suffers from having very few likable characters, the least of which may actually be the main character. The idea of the events of the day being the same start to fall apart if you think about them too much. The movie tries to have a deeper message that I don’t think it ever quite accomplishes, but it is still an entertaining movie overall. 3.75/5

Moon

Moon is a 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque sci-fi movie. It is hard to talk about the plot without spoiling things, but it follows an astronaut at a resource gathering plant on the moon. Strange events start to occur shortly before he is scheduled to return to Earth. It is an incredibly interesting and original movie. Sam Rockwell has to carry the movie and he does it really well. The plot takes some twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. There are some moments that are truly emotional and work within the story. It is a well put together movie, but it clearly had a low budget. The effects suffer from that at times. Kevin Spacey voices the computer that runs the station and I feel like that could have been used more and also in a more villainous way. Catch it currently on Netflix, it’s a good watch. 4.25/5

Logan Lucky

What do you get when James Bond, Kylo Ren, and Magic Mike put on southern accents and team up to plan an Oceans 11 style heist on Charlotte Motor Speedway during a NASCAR race? An incredibly fun and entertaining movie apparently. The plot is dumb but the movie knows it and doesn’t take itself seriously at all. The cast has great chemistry and there are some really humorous moments between them. It has a few side stories that are unnecessary and it doesn’t add much to the heist genre overall, but it is a very fun watch. 4/5.

American Assassin

American Assassin is a spy thriller that is not quite as good as its source material. The plot tries to do a little too much and is a bit convoluted at times. It can’t seem to decide on which storylines to develop. With that said, Dylan O’Brien is good as Mitch Rapp and Michael Keaton is good, though over the top, as his mentor. There are moments that are really good and it is interesting enough to keep you entertained. It’s not a bad movie at all, just more forgettable than anything. There are a ton more books that could be developed with this character, and I would like to see a sequel. 3/5.